True art does not reside in the beauty of the painting, but in the act of painting... Zen calligraphy is exactly that.

Pablo Picasso

If you understand that zazen is the great door of the Law, you will be like a dragon penetrating the water or a tiger entering a deep forest.

Dogen Kigen

True Zen means sitting quietly in the right posture. Zen means setting the mind at rest, concentrating intuition and reasoning together. Zen is not some special state, it is our normal condition, silent, peaceful, awake, without agitation.

Taisen Deshimaru

It is because we are in continuum with the universe that we have life. It is a question of acting in continuum with the universe.

Master Kodo Sawaki

Zen finds its source in the experience of Shakyamuni Buddha, who, two thousand five hundred years ago, while sitting in zazen posture, achieved awakening.

This zazen practice contains the essence of his teaching, which carries a message of universal import: Zazen is nothing other than the return to the normal condition of body and mind.

Buddha's teaching does not fall under the heading of philosophy, and even less of metaphysics. It is based on lived experience. One could compare it to medicine that offers a cure for the ills of human nature.

Buddha did not intend to create a new religion, but rather to help human beings understand the cause of their suffering, and to free them from it. This liberation is called the awakening of Buddha, supreme wisdom and true freedom, achieved through zazen.

To practice zazen, we sit on a thick, round cushion (zafu), legs crossed in lotus or half-lotus. The pelvis is tipped forward, so that the knees push against the floor. From this base, we straighten the spinal column. We push the ground with our knees, the sky with the top of the head. The chin is tucked, back of the neck stretched, shoulders naturally relaxed. The eyes are half-closed, the gaze resting on the ground one meter in front of you. The left hand is placed in the right hand, palms upward. The thumbs are joined horizontally, connected by a slight pressure, and the two hands are placed on top of the thighs touching the abdomen. Each detail of the posture has a deep meaning. The different parts of the body are interdependent and influence each other; the posture offers great stability. Unconsciously and naturally, we stop acting through the will of the ego, and we can thus be penetrated by cosmic life.

Correct breathing is essential during zazen. It is calm and establishes a slow, strong, natural rhythm. The exhalation is long and deep. The masters often compare it to the mooing of a cow. The inhalation is shorter and happens naturally. This slow, calm, deep exhalation sweeps away mental complications. The mind becomes as clear as a cloudless sky.

Current civilization diminishes the spirit, the vital force that each of us possesses. The artificial lifestyles we lead - processed food, overheated living conditions, synthetic clothes, modern comforts that demand no effort - all these artifices cause us regress into passivity.

True spiritual help means communicating this vital force to others. The entire cosmos is filled with it; our lives are waves in its ocean. Ki is the manifestation of universal energy. It sets things in motion, propels them. It makes the blood flow through our veins, stimulates nervous impulses, regenerates cells and creates vital movement. A strong ki makes life intense.

In zazen, we are immobile. When we concentrate on a deep exhalation, a very strong ki develops. How do we use it? By concentrating, putting our vital energy in just one action at a time. Zazen teaches us to live this way.

In modern civilisation, dispersion, mental agitation, disordered thoughts and anxiety cause us to lose ki. We must rediscover this fundamental force, because the destiny of humanity is to accomplish its cosmic function.

Buddha's experience was transmitted without interruption from master to disciple, thus forming a continuous lineage.

After a thousand-year establishment in India, this teaching was brought to China by the monk Bodhidharma in the fifth century A.D. Zen, called Ch'an, found fertile ground for its development in China, and blossomed there. It was during this period that Zen confirmed its originality and purity of practice.

In the thirteenth century, after a stay in China with Master Nyojo, the Japanese monk Dogen brought Soto Zen to Japan.
Master Dogen is considered to be the greatest Buddhist philosopher (along with Nagarjuna in India in the third century).
Zen has since profoundly affected Japanese culture:
Today, more than 20,000 temples attest to its influence.

We live in a world of fear:
fear of the future, fear of others, fear of the exterior world. In this era, fear is an ever-present anxiety that destroys our vital force. It is the cause of many sicknesses. At the root of fear and anguish is the attachment to oneself and to things in life.

By practicing zazen regularly, by abandoning attachment, this anxious state disappears. If the mind is tranquil, everything becomes tranquil. In zazen, it is possible to observe emotions and fears like bubbles that come up to the surface of a river. The mind is brought back to the present moment; it becomes like the vast ocean which, deep down, cannot be troubled.

Most fears are imaginary and correspond to no real or immediate danger. Non-fear is the consciousness that lets emotions come, without identifying with them. The consciousness then frees itself and attains a state of stability which manifests as non-fear.

The truth of life is not a goal to be attained at some particular point in the future; it is the reality of the step taken at this very moment. To think of reality as a straight line, a linear progression from start to finish, from cause to effect, from idea to realization, is an error.

Reality is an endless circle, and each point on its circumference is at once the centre, the starting point, and the destination. Wherever we are, 'here' is the centre of our life-journey. There is no edge, no outside, no lower, no higher, no end, and no beginning. Whatever this world is giving us now, we are in the centre of our lives, on the open way, step by step. This is it! Our ultimate peace lies in the midst of the heavy storm of our daily lives.
Therefore, how can we not neglect even one grain of rice?

'On The Open Way' by Hogen Yamahata

When the mind rests on nothing, true mind appears.

Diamond Sutra